There was an occasion, maybe three years before Tony Gwynn’s 2007 induction to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, when it was brought to his attention his autograph on a baseball was selling for $129 online.
Gwynn just shook his head.
“My autograph can’t be worth anything,” he said. “I’ve signed for everyone.”
Probably three times over.
Gwynn was so accessible throughout his 20-year career with the Padres and for more than a decade thereafter when he returned to San Diego State to coach the baseball team, that seemingly every San Diegan — not to mention many baseball fans across the country — had his signature.